During a conventional web conference, conference participants connect their participant devices to a web conference server over a computer network. Examples of suitable participant devices include desktop computers, laptop computers, tablets, and smart phones.
The participant devices provide video signals (e.g., to display participant faces) and audio signals (e.g., to carry participant voices) to the web conference server. The web conference server then shares the video signals among the participant devices. Additionally, the web conference server forms an aggregate audio signal from the audio signals, and shares the aggregate audio signal among the participant devices. As a result, the conference participants are able to view each other, as well as ask questions and inject comments to form a collaborative conference exchange even though the conference participants may be distributed among remote locations.